The meeting with the mistress, the escape into the forest with a rocket launcher, the violence: this is how El Mencho fell
Images from the place where El Mencho was captured. Photo: STRINGER / AFP / Profimedia
The leader of the drug traffickers died next to a rocket launcher, crouched in the bushes of Tapalpa, not thick enough to protect him from the Mexican army. He died at dawn after a short and futile escape. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known by the nickname of El Mencho, aged 59, fell exactly like the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Chapo Guzmán, ten years ago: because of the visit of a woman, reports the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, quoted by Rador Radio Romania.
And no one would have guessed, because El Mencho, as ruthless as he was calculating, during his 14 years at the head of the Jalisco Cartel, had been careful not to be seen (there are only three photos of him) and to avoid lapsing into blatant hedonism. Instead, a meeting in his mountain cabin with a “sentimental match,” in the words of General Ricardo Trevilla, betrayed him. And a chapter in the history of Mexican crime closed.
Mexico's most wanted man, killed by the military. How the United States contributed to the operation that targeted “El Mencho”, the leader of a feared cartel
As calm returns to Mexico after a wave of violence unleashed in eight states by affiliates of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel – 252 roadblocks, gas stations, shops and cars set on fire, clashes that left 30 criminals and 25 National Guard officers dead – details are emerging of the operation that identified the hideout of the world's most wanted drug lord and the ensuing firefight.
Chaos in Mexico after the killing of the country's most important drug lord: Cartels take revenge with violence and arson, tourists found themselves in a “war zone”
Tracking down a friend of El Mencho's mistress and acting on a tip from an undercover agent, on February 20 Mexican authorities located a cabin in Tapalpa, a town of 20,000 in the mountains of Jalisco. The new US anti-cartel task force has confirmed that this may indeed be the hideout.
On February 21, the woman left. And that night the operation began, involving special forces, the army, six helicopters and two planes. The soldiers surrounded the house. The bodyguards opened fire to cover the leader's escape, killing eight of the soldiers. In the hut, the soldiers found seven rifles and two rocket launchers.
The chase continued into the woods, where El Mencho fled on foot with four of his men. Special forces surround them. “They opened fire on us; they had rocket launchers, but luckily they didn't use them,” recounts General Ricardo Trevilla, the Secretary of National Defense appointed by the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The cartel leader dies from his injuries in the helicopter that was transporting him to Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco. After his death, the helicopter heads for Mexico City. Word spreads and riots break out. The cartel cashier, Hugo César Macías, known as El Tuli, is the one who organizes the blockades and attacks, offering $1,100 for each soldier killed. Instead, he himself dies as he flees loaded with weapons and $1 million in cash.
El Mencho's natural heir is Juan Carlos Valencia, the biological son of his wife, Rosalinda González, who was arrested in 2018 and is a key figure in the organization. Other regional leaders are vying for leadership of the most powerful cartel. The operation was the Mexican president's response to Donald Trump's demands as a way to make Guadalajara, which will host four World Cup matches in June, safer. But many fear that the football tournament is in jeopardy from the unpredictable aftermath of the killing of the last drug lord.
Mexico tourists advised to take shelter due to violent reprisals unleashed by drug cartels
Who was “El Mencho,” Mexico's most wanted drug lord, whose death following a military raid sparked cartel violence across the country? pic.twitter.com/WJINKYFiiZ
— DW News (@dwnews) February 23, 2026
